LinkedIn expert to lead workshop at SPECS 2017

For more than half a century, Chain Store Age’s annual SPECS conference has delivered one of the retail industry’s most important and impactful events.

The 2017 event, to be held March 12-14 at the Gaylord Palms, Kissimmee, Florida, will cover a wide range of emerging and evolving issues, focusing on must-see innovations and essential information about trends, topics and technologies that will be impacting the industry for many years to come.

One of the 2017 conference highlights will be a session on how to leverage LinkedIn, led by Brandon Chesnutt, director, digital and development at Identity, a Bingham Farms, Michigan-based integrated public relations firm. Chesnutt has served as social media counsel and delivered award-winning work on behalf of leading consumer brands and large corporations, including Verizon Wireless, Verizon Enterprise Solutions, ADESA, and Kelly Services.

Brandon’s session, which will be held twice for maximum attendance, will discuss how to maximize the power and utility and connectivity of LinkedIn: how to effectively utilize it as a platform for company connections and recruitment, and how to use it to properly market yourself. From executives looking to build their brand and increase visibility, to marketing managers and sales professionals aiming toward enhanced networking potential and an improved ability to generate leads, LinkedIn is the most important tool in the social media toolbox.

Attendees will come away from the session with an understanding of how to cultivate an effective LinkedIn presence that leverages several different types of content – and an appreciation for the importance of evolving and refining that content over time.

Big new entertainment attraction headed to nation’s largest mall

Mall of America is upping its entertainment quotient with a 40,000-sq.-ft. arcade imported from India.

Called Smaaash, and co-founded by an entrepreneur from India, the attraction includes a multilevel go-cart track, virtual reality and video games and a restaurant and bar, the Star Tribune reported.

The venture represents one of the largest investments ever made by a company inside the mal, the report said, and means that the mall’s fourth floor — its top and least-visited floor, which has seen many ventures come and go — is fully leased for the first time in years.

CVS Health to close 70 stores

CVS Health has embarked on a three-step streamlining initiative with a goal of saving approximately $3 billion from 2017 to 2021.

Two-thirds of the savings will be seen in CVS’s retail/long-term care segment, with the remaining one-third of savings seen in the pharmacy benefits manager category.

The new initiative will include the closing of 70 stores in 2017. The store closings should provide a $265 million benefit to CVS, mostly in 2017, and will help CVS deliver higher returns for shareholders over the long-term,” Dave Denton, executive VP and CFO of CVS, stated during Thursday’s CVS Analyst Day.

Denton also said the Woonsocket, R.I.-based retailer will “continue to provide convenient local access to the millions of patients we serve on a daily basis.”

CVS also is enhancing efficiency of corporate shared service, which involves consolidating similar activities across business units. The retailer has already begun the process, with Denton announcing early promising results, including 15% to 20% reductions in labor costs for relocated activities.

The final step, expected to save CVS between $700 million and $750 million per year, is to optimize the pharmacy platform. This involves seamlessly redistributing various aspects of pharmacy workload to better maximize script fulfillment capacity through use of process redesign and technology.

Denton also announced during his CVS Analyst Day remarks that the company approved a dividend increase of 18% for 2017. Hence, CVS will pay out $2 per share in dividends, per year, next year.

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